everything had been so quiet that once more we were indulging in
the hope that the war was at an end.

In spite of Dr Johnson's harsh saying about a fisherman, I know of no
more satisfactory amusement than is to be found in company with a rod
and line. The sport may be bad, but there is the country, the bright
sky, the waving trees, the dancing waters, and that delicious feeling of
expectation of the finest bite and the biggest fish that never comes but
always may.

I was in this state of expectancy that day. The sport was not good
certainly, for the fish I caught were small, but I argued that where
there were small fish there must be large, and sooner or later some of
the monsters of the dam would see and take my bait.

I fished till dinner-time, varying my position, and when the bell rang
some of the men came and sat on the edge and watched me, chatting
civilly enough as they smoked their pipes.

As luck had it I caught a couple of good-sized silvery roach, and
Stevens gave his leg a regular slap as he exclaimed:

"Well if they'd towd me there was fish like that i' th' dam I wouldn't
hev believed it."

The bell rang for work to be resumed, and the men slowly moved along the
dam edge, Stevens being left, and he stopped to fill and light his
pipe--so it seemed to me; but as he stooped over it, puffing away large
clouds of smoke, I heard him say:

"Don't look. Soon as men's gone in, yow go and stand on ledge close
under grinding-shop windows, and see what you catch."

"It's such an awkward place to get to," I said. "I suppose it's deep,
but--"

"You do what I tell'ee, and don't talk," growled Stevens, and he
strolled off with his hands in his pockets after his mates.

"I sha'n't go," I said. "It's a very awkward place to get to; the ledge
is not above nine inches wide, and if I got hold of a big fish, how am I
to land him!"

The very idea of getting hold of a fish that would be too hard to land
was too much for me, and I should have gone to the ledge if it had only
been four and a half inches wide. So, waiting to have a few more
throws, which were without result, I picked up my basket, walked right
round the end of the dam, and then along the top of a narrow wall till I
reached the end of the works at the far side, and from there lowered
myself gently down on the ledge, along which Pannell had brought me when
he rescued me from the wheel-pit, right at the other end, and towards
which I was slowly mak